Hyderabad: A Special Court for NIA Cases in Hyderabad has sentenced nine people, including eight Bangladeshi nationals, to life imprisonment in a 2019 human trafficking case involving Bangladeshi women who were allegedly trafficked into India and forced into prostitution.
The court, in its order passed on September 17, also imposed a total fine of Rs 1.37 lakh on the nine convicts. They will undergo an additional three months of simple imprisonment if the fine is not paid, according to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The case relates to a trafficking network that allegedly lured Bangladeshi women into India with promises of jobs and better wages. After bringing them into the country, the accused allegedly forced the women into prostitution.
The case was initially registered by the Telangana Police at Pahadi Shareef Police Station in Hyderabad following a police operation in September 2019. During the operation, three Bangladeshi women were rescued from a brothel in Jalpally village. Another woman was rescued from a house in Mahimood Colony in Balapur.
The NIA later took over the investigation and re-registered the case on October 12, 2019, as RC-03/2019/NIA/HYD.
During the investigation, the agency established the alleged involvement of the accused in the trafficking network. The NIA subsequently filed a chargesheet against 12 accused, including three who were absconding, on October 17, 2020. The accused were arrested from different locations in Telangana and West Bengal during 2019 and 2020.
The nine persons convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment are Ruhul Amin Dhali, Mohd Yousuf Khan alias Md Imran, Bithi Begum alias Khadija Shaik, Imamul Ghazi alias Mohd Rana Hussain, Mohammed Al Mamun, Sojib Shaik, Suresh Kumar Das alias Sagor, Mohd Abdulla Munshi alias Abdul Sarkar and Mohd Ayub Shaik.
The accused were prosecuted under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Foreigners Act, 1946, and the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.
The conviction marks the conclusion of the prosecution in the 2019 trafficking case, while the NIA’s investigation had traced the accused to different locations across Telangana and West Bengal.
